desperatehills
Very Active Member
- Messages
- 1,384
I have enjoyed reading everyones hunt stories on MM so I thought I would share mine. Mine started in February when I hit the lottery and drew a expo tag, muzzleloader deer for the Book Cliffs. Before you go thinking I am one of those out of state hunters with deep pockets I will tell you thats not the case. I am a auto mechanic and my wife sells paint. My wife travels alot with her work so see builds up air miles pretty quick and a few free hotel stays along the way. I am a sucker for a good sportsmans show so I bummed a airline ticket and hotel from my wife and flew to Salt Lake last winter. If I knew the odds were as bad as they are I would have never spent the money on the tickets. The website made the odds look like 100:1 not the actual 1500:1. Well my friends call me lucky.
Once I found out I had drawn a tag I came on MM and ran searches for "Book Cliffs Deer". I found several pictures and stories that really got my blood pumping. The bucks guys were "settling" for were much bigger than anything I had ever killed. This is going to be a long summer. I posted a few basic questions and got help for many MM'ers. They were a tremendous help and and took much of the worry out of planning my trip and its ultimate success.
Next was a trip to sportsmans warehouse to get a new muzzleloader. The rules in Utah are not as restrictive as Oregon. We are not allowed 209 primers, 1x scopes, or sabots. Again the MM'ers in the muzzleloader forum helped me with different loads and I had it shooting great in no time. Man I wish I could use this gun here at home!
Now it was time to scout. I poured over maps, bought the nat geo topo program for my computer, and spent hours looking at Google Earth. But nothing was going to substitute putting the boots to the ground. Soon I formed a plan to spend some time in the unit. Again using my wifes air miles I would fly to Utah and rent a SUV. But thats when things headed south. My dad was stricken by cancer and things did not look good. Going on my hunt was in doubt and scouting was out. After spending 2 months in the hospital he was put in hospice at a local nursing home. Three weeks later he made a turn around and began physical theropy. Two weeks later he was fired by hospice and sent home. He continues to improve even today.
With dads improvement my scouting trip and hunt were back on. I wanted to scout before the archery season. Mostly so I could see all the bucks everyone talks about and I didn't want to fowl up the archery hunters. As it turned out I couldn't go until mid september. Most the archery hunters were done by then and I didn't feel like I was in anybodys way. Also the information learned would be more helpful on my hunt being just a few weeks before opening day. Driving in I expected to see deer around every corner. We came in seep ridge and made it to the divide without seeing a deer. It didn't take long to realize that this was going to be a hunt not a carp shoot. We pulled over at 5pm and started glassing. It didn't take long to find deer and it seemed every time we pulled over we could find a few. This is one of the bucks we saw that first night. My photo page isn't working, I am going to post this and try again.
Once I found out I had drawn a tag I came on MM and ran searches for "Book Cliffs Deer". I found several pictures and stories that really got my blood pumping. The bucks guys were "settling" for were much bigger than anything I had ever killed. This is going to be a long summer. I posted a few basic questions and got help for many MM'ers. They were a tremendous help and and took much of the worry out of planning my trip and its ultimate success.
Next was a trip to sportsmans warehouse to get a new muzzleloader. The rules in Utah are not as restrictive as Oregon. We are not allowed 209 primers, 1x scopes, or sabots. Again the MM'ers in the muzzleloader forum helped me with different loads and I had it shooting great in no time. Man I wish I could use this gun here at home!
Now it was time to scout. I poured over maps, bought the nat geo topo program for my computer, and spent hours looking at Google Earth. But nothing was going to substitute putting the boots to the ground. Soon I formed a plan to spend some time in the unit. Again using my wifes air miles I would fly to Utah and rent a SUV. But thats when things headed south. My dad was stricken by cancer and things did not look good. Going on my hunt was in doubt and scouting was out. After spending 2 months in the hospital he was put in hospice at a local nursing home. Three weeks later he made a turn around and began physical theropy. Two weeks later he was fired by hospice and sent home. He continues to improve even today.
With dads improvement my scouting trip and hunt were back on. I wanted to scout before the archery season. Mostly so I could see all the bucks everyone talks about and I didn't want to fowl up the archery hunters. As it turned out I couldn't go until mid september. Most the archery hunters were done by then and I didn't feel like I was in anybodys way. Also the information learned would be more helpful on my hunt being just a few weeks before opening day. Driving in I expected to see deer around every corner. We came in seep ridge and made it to the divide without seeing a deer. It didn't take long to realize that this was going to be a hunt not a carp shoot. We pulled over at 5pm and started glassing. It didn't take long to find deer and it seemed every time we pulled over we could find a few. This is one of the bucks we saw that first night. My photo page isn't working, I am going to post this and try again.
